Stencil Archive News

Have any plans Sunday, November 15? Come out to the Howard Zinn Book Fair and hear me give a 15 minute presentation on stencils and street art.

The presentation will be 1:45 in the Grace Lee Boggs room.

WHERE:City College of SF Mission Campus1125 Valencia St.

My presentation will support an hour long program by authors Rachel Cassandra and Lauren Gucik, who are releasingtheir book Women Street Artists of Latin America: Art Without Fear/ Grafiteras y Muralistas en América Latina: Arte Sin Miedo through my publisher Manic D Press.

This book shines light on female art and voices in the lesser explored Latin American street art scenes. I frequently hear people stereotype street artists as always male (and usually a person of color in a gang), so appreciate that Cassandra and Gucik are releasing a book that will help erase assumptions about who makes the art on the streets. As a bonus, some of the artists featured in this new book cut and paint stencils.

Women Street Artists of Latin America: Art Without Fear is a book about Latin American women creating visual art in public spaces. It includes interviews, portraits of the artists, and photographs of their work.

If you tried to visit the Stencil Archive last night, you probably saw an error page. We aren't sure what happened and it appears to be all good and up again. Apologies if this interrupted your stencil enjoyment in any way. As always, this project is a bootstrap, grassroots one. Any support goes straight to the admin and upkeep of the Stencil Archive. Profit of any kind is hilarious in this age of hypercapitalism. As a great street artist once said, "art should be free to the public and not inside a stuffy old building."

Bruce Tomb has been a long-time supporter of street art, mostly via postering, along the ever-changing Valencia Street corridor. On the wall of a former police station, the (de)Appropriation Project has been a vibrant source of stencils, posters, and political and personal expression. I have heavily documented it over the years, putting some photos in Stencil Nation and labelling my photos with "dap" when I put them here on the Stencil Archive. Tomb's wall is a special wall: legal, unedited (unless you don't like the commercials ads that sometimes get put up on there), encouraged, and community-supported. As waves of change hit the Mission District, knowing that there is a solid spot to paste up on and enjoy is a beautiful thing.

Now Tomb is deepening the location's committement to pubilc expression with a new and interactive parklet. Here is some info about the new parklet from Tomb's blog:

This parklet is distinct in that it is also a public art work sited in front of the (de)Appropriation Project. The parklet will take the form of a sidewalk “bulb-out” and two speakers’ podiums. The laser cut step plate for the podiums will also act as signage for the project as required by the Planning Department and the expanded steel mesh will be welded into the form of the podiums. This mesh is the same as what was used to fortify the former police Mission Police Station in 1970, protecting it from the community it served. That mesh has been repurposed and now is the front gate to our building. The custom formed curb will be stained to match the repurposed steel decking from another parklet in the neighborhood that was removed last year.

On a wall just inside the building formerly known as CELLspace, an artwork delivers a defiant message: "NOT for Sale!" But the message is a lie — the building, whose exterior walls once featured some of the best street art in San Francisco, was sold and is slated for development. Last summer, two volunteers — artist Russell Howze and art editor Annice Jacoby — took down much of the outside art and put it in storage for temporary safekeeping. What's left on the walls are stickers, tagging, and remnants of art — including faces of Native American men, a monkey with a sign imagining a battle between two well-known street artists ("Hektad vs. Banksy"), and an impressive work by muralist Joel Bergner. Even in its current state, 2050 Bryant's art potpourri inspires passers-by to take photographs for posterity.

But what about the art that was taken down? Howze, whose own CELLspace work is among the preserved art, and Jacoby are trying to find a patron who will buy the works and display them again. The art includes Bergner's De Frontera a Frontera, a lyrical, red-splashed work about haves and have-nots in the Dominican Republic, and Icy and Sot's collaboration with Regan "Ha Ha" Tamanui, Super Hero with Portraits, which has a caped boy standing alongside a gallery of orange-tinged smiling faces.

These stencil photos are free to link, download, share, and enjoy, except where copyright is given.No profit should be made from the content of this site. This is also a community website, so your participation is strongly encouraged.